Web strapping is widely used to tie down and secure cargo and loads. Web strapping is also used to secure attachments to bases and to secure occupants in place. Webbing straps are also used as belts for clothing.
Needs exists for better, less expensive and easier to make and use buckles which rapidly and securely grip and hold the web strapping, which permit tightening of the web strapping while in the engaged position, and which rapidly and easily release the web strapping when disengaged.
The buckle of the present invention provides for the needs of the prior art. The new buckle is made of two pieces which preferably are injection molded. The buckles may be made in different sizes and may be used in multiple applications. The buckles work with laminated strap webbing or open weave strap webbing. The buckles allow the webbing to pass through the buckle and allow the users to engage or disengage the locking. The web engagements within the buckle can prevent the web from sliding through in any direction, or can be configured to allow the belting to move in only one direction.
The buckle parts are moldable in multiple materials and are low in cost.
The outer buckle plate is elongated in the strap direction. The flat top of the plate has extensions which extend over the webbing to maintain the flatness of the webbing within the buckle. Two curvilinear cutouts at opposite sides of the flat plate allow flexing, springing or bridging of the major side portions of the upper buckle member. Thin upper edge portions act as springs. Curved inward extending tops rigidify the rounded sides which are pressed inward to relatively move the two-buckle parts into engaged or disengaged position.
Four guide legs extend downward from the flat top near the corners to slide within alignment openings in the sides of the inner plate. Inward extending keeper tabs at lower ends of the legs ride over and engage ledges within the guide openings to snap the members together and to prevent separation of the buckle members once the buckle members have been snapped together.
Alignment projections on the sides of the inner buckle member fit within openings in the sides of the outer buckle member. Opposite central side recesses in the inner member or base plate receive and allow inward movement of the major side portions of the outer member. Curved lateral outer edges of the inner plate prevent overtravel of the movable side portions.
Bases of the side extensions of the inner plate have locking lugs which extend toward the central opening. The movable rounded side portions of the outer plate have locking tabs which engage the lugs to prevent movement out of the locking position when the locking tabs are engaged with bottoms of the locking lugs, and which prevent movement into the locking position when the locking tabs are positioned above the tops of the locking lugs. Locking and unlocking the buckle requires squeezing rounded sides together while pushing or pulling on the outer plate. Alternatively, bottoms of the locking tabs are chamfered so that they automatically override the locking lugs when the two plates are pressed together to lock the buckle.
Teeth extend inward from the outer locking plate. Angled through-holes in the lower plate receive the teeth and hold the locking teeth in engaged position when the buckle is locked.
In one embodiment, the locking teeth are angularly mounted in recesses in the upper plate so that the teeth may be deflected when the webbing strap is pulled in a tightening direction, and so that the teeth in cooperation with the holes in the bottom plate prevent reverse movement of the webbing strap when the buckle parts are locked together.
The lower plate has at one end an extension with a transversely elongated opening for receiving a loop in a fixed end of the webbing strap. The loop is stitched, bonded, welded or interwoven to the strap near its fixed end. The loop-receiving end of the inner plate also has an upper rectangular guide which passes the free end of the webbing strap out of the buckle. The opposite end of the inner plate has a rectangular guide extending from the plate for guiding the free end of the webbing strap as it enters the buckle.
The present invention provides a low cost, readily assemblable and easily usable buckle to selectively permit and prevent webbing straps from sliding through the buckle.
These and further and other objects and features of the invention are apparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing written specification, with the drawings.